Janesville Web broadcaster Local Vision TV signs off

JANESVILLE—The owner of Local Vision TV, an Internet news channel, signed off Monday, saying aspects of his company might have been before their time.

“We gave it everything we had,” owner Tony Huml said Monday of the three-year venture.

“But the economics just aren't working out.”

Huml said his vision was to bring video news to Janesville and Rock County. The county gets only a bit of coverage from Madison and Rockford, Ill., stations, and he wanted to fill that void in video format.

Over the years, the viewer numbers grew, especially when the station last year launched a daily morning news program, he said.

“That really helped build our audience on a daily basis,” Huml said.

The station went mobile earlier this year, and that also increased viewers, Huml said.

Once he had built the blueprint, Huml's goal was to take the concept to other communities that do not have television news coverage.

“Traffic continued to build, but the economics didn't follow the growth patterns we had planned,” he said.

At the end, the station had about 1,500 views per newscast.

Huml employed nine people at the company's peak. At the end, he employed 3½.

“We cut expenses the best we could, but it didn't work, unfortunately,” Huml said.

Possibly, some advertisers are not yet comfortable with the new medium, he said.

“Many businesses turned out not to be ready for us,” Huml said. “But we had some great advertisers along the way that could see the vision.

“I think we might be a little ahead of our time as far as … accessibility to our content.”

Huml said he'll focus more on his family.

"I've been going pretty hard for three years,” he said.

Huml will continue producing videos for businesses from his Janesville home.